Exclusive: On the road with the hunters
chasing down America's deadliest beasts
as numbers surge: 'Bring in the ears'

There are good videos on YouTube of hog hunters. I don't see why some hogs can't be chipped so they can be tracked to where they hide out during the day. That might help.

At first, I thought they were talking about the View. I dont know about Texas, but they are everywhere in south Georgia too.

There are maps of feral hog infestation from 1982 and 2023, showing the spread of this invasive species, the descendants of European wild boars imported over a century ago, and escaped farm pigs. Several of my friends with professional skills hunt hogs and coyotes day and night, even being hired by farmers and large land owners to eliminate entire sounders. (That requires several coordinated riflemen.) What they do isn't even called hunting, rather, elimination because they intend to kill as many of these four-legged pests as possible, even the little footballs that sometime explode when shot by high power rifle. Although feral hogs are abundant in Florida, Texas is ground zero for hogs. Hunters can now hire experienced helicopter pilots so they can shoot hogs from above. As Pigman said after a productive flight, "There is carnage all in this field." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFSkSwC-eHY (Pigman in helicopter) Archers also shoot a lot of hogs, although (unlike a rifleman with, say, an AR-10 in .308 Win) they deal with harvesting one at a time. There's really nothing deadlier than a broadhead arrow, and videos are superabundant. One site I visit regularly is "1gabowhunter" on youtube. And here's "reverse angle pig" which shows a pass through from both sides. Invariably fatal, usually within a minute. Unless the broadhead hits solid bone, it's going through. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyd_wSO361Q (reverse angle pig)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhLJ1qWlNp4 (Feral Hogs Are Tearing Up Texas, So Tourists Are Shooting Them from Helicopters -- from Vice News)

Until you actaully walk thru an area the have shredded, you cannot believe their destructiveness. Been spreading rapidly, have largely become nocturnal under hunting pressure.

Incidentally, in Texas after a productive helicopter shooting session, the dead hogs are usually left in the field, where coyotes or other hogs will feed on them. Then the helicopters come back again and shoot the coyotes and the hog survivors. Hunters in vehicles or on foot are now are resorting to drones with IR cameras to find distant sounders, then zero in on them. Pretty smart. Hogs are baited with corn and trapped in cages with remote control gates that can be dropped 24/7 when the whole sounder is feeding. They can be herded live into trucks on the way to the slaughterhouse, or the trappers can leisurely walk around the pen with a .22, shooting the pigs in the ear or forehead. They go down kicking furiously. If feral hogs aren't eliminated more vigorously than they are now--more hunters needed!--we'll have them everywhere. They really are a problem. Very destructive.

My family in AL have feral hogs invade their land almost daily. If you do see one dead on the side of the road, even the coyotes and other wild animals won't eat it and rarely do the vultures pick at it. Believe it or not a few people will eat this foul animal.

Sounds like they have several of the characteristics of today's democrats.

Good food source. With bacon prices where they are .....

Apparently there are different opinions on what America's deadliest beasts are.

I recall reading about a Texas Hunting Safari in the late 1850's, attended by Frederic Law Olmstead (architect who designed Central Park in NYC) that experienced a hog attack in mid-day. Somewhere near the modern city of College Station, TX, the hunters returned to their camp after a day's hunting to find that their tents, provisions, and camp in general had been ransacked by a sounder of wild pigs. Others have speculated that those wild pigs were descendents of those abandoned by early Texas Settlers, who had always let their pigs roam wild as a matter of convenience, but who had abandoned them altogether as they evacuated ahead of Santa Ana's advancing army during the war for Texas independence, circa 1836. Since then, there have been rumors that a few imported wild boars were intentionally set free by some ill-informed landowners, to 'beef up' the wild pig population. Regardless, genetics being what they are, domesticated pigs will revert to their feral appearance after only a few generations, if left to themselves. FYI, I recall walking up on a newborn piglet in the woods of E.Texas, so new he still had remnants of his umbilical cord attached, who had the exact, mottled-light-brown-tan camoflage of a deer fawn. The small size (1 or 2 lbs), stubby nose, floppy ears, and cloven hooves left no doubt what he was.

Wild pig hunting is a big business in Texas. A couple of years ago, I tried to book a pig hunt with an outfitter/guide service down there. He was booked solid for the next 18 months. Every other guide service he knew of was in the same situation.

A group or us butchered out about a 35#-40# young, feral hog, smoked it and it was excellent! Don't knock it 'till you try it.